Learning about online learning: An approach to staff development for university teachers

Online interaction impacts on learning: Teaching the teachers to teach online

“…There are several reasons for this approach: limitations of face-to-face, centralised, workshops (Salter & Hansen, 2001;Hewson and Hughes, 1998); teachers taking control of their own professional development (Stuckey, Lockyer & Hedberg, 2001); empowering the academic staff member to make connections with their own experience and knowledge (Bennett, Priest & Macpherson, 1999), putting the staff member in the position of the online student (Devonshire & Philip, 2001); increasing accessibility and enhanced opportunities for communication amongst staff, and decreasing the amount of face to face workshops (Drysdale & Creanor, 1998); learning by example (Wills, 1998); complementing traditional methods (MacKenzie & Staley, 2000), providing opportunities for staff separated geographically to work collaboratively across the institution (Kandlebinder, 2001). In some cases moving staff development online has meant the provision of specific courses online, some with some face-to-face components, or the design and development of websites that act as content resources.…”

Professional Development for the Online Teacher

“…Shotsberger (1997) argued that online teachers need the skills to blend communication technologies to foster a sense of community. More practically, online teachers also need strategies to deal with student frustrations caused by technology failure, and other technology-related problems such as viruses, unstable software and incompatibility problems (Bennett et al, 1999).…”

“…Those academics who feel comfortable working with technology in online environments are rare, and there is generally little transference of expertise to their colleagues (Bennett, Priest & Macpherson, 1999), a situation compounded by an increasing number of sessional and part-time teachers (Van Dusen, 1997). Other reasons for the resistance to technology amongst university staff include: lack of experience or confidence in using technology, caution about methodologies teachers regard as unproven, and a belief that computer-based options threaten the human interaction teachers value in face-to-face teaching (Cremer, 2001;Sparrow, Herrington & Herrington, 2000).…”

Exploring in-service preschool teachers’ conceptions of and approaches to online education

“…Although many studies in the line of adult education have already dealt with personal perceptions (e.g. Donaldson, Graham, Martindill, & Bradley, 2000;Kember, Jenkins, & Ng, 2003;Xie, Watkins, Golbeck, & Huang, 2012) and the uses of technology in professional development (e.g., Bennet, Priest, & Macpherson, 1999;Kenworthy, 1989), an investigation focusing on a certain special group's individual experiences in online learning environments is still necessary. Accordingly, we believe that it may be fruitful to examine preschool teachers' learning experience, comprised of their conceptions of and approaches to learning through online education.…”